


A Small Margin between Belief and Fact

by RahDamon



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, I'm not kidding, There are real and made up sources in there, at least three of those sources are real, here have a scientific paper written as though Pokemon were real, okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:20:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21735961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RahDamon/pseuds/RahDamon
Summary: A Paper on the “statistical unlikelyhood of evolution” as well as a critical attack on those who subscribe to the theory.
Relationships: None
Kudos: 1





	A Small Margin between Belief and Fact

**Author's Note:**

> So this was a fun exercise in writing a paper as though I was living "in a Pokemon World". I wrote this for my originally uni writing club and well, yeah. I loved doing this,

**POKENAVI TRANSCRIPTION**

**_Mace (13.11):_ **Hey, quick question. Could you do me a fav? I’d be thanlful. Forever. Your slave, eternal.

_Doll (13.15):_ You’re laying it on too thick. Also, it’s thankful.

**_Mace (13.17):_** Exactly what I need! Editor, Reader. Please?

_**Doll (13.21):**_ I can’t with you. Send whatev over.

**_Mace (13.23):_** Thanks, love <3

**POKENAVI TRANSFER. PDF FILE (1.2 MB)**

-📀-

THE STATISTICAL UNLIKELYHOOD OF EVOLUTION

One of the most surprising findings anthropologists and scientists have made within the last years is the fact that all cultures, regardless of geographical distance or social contact, have an origin myth, or rather a creation myth. (Leeming; 2010) However, on further speculation, that might not be that surprising as humanity always wonders about “who we are”(Leeming 2010) on a cosmic scale. And so it should not seem so wondrous that long lost cultures would try and make sense of the creation of humanity and the different species of pocket monster (henceforth referred to, as they are commonly known, “Pokemon”) as well as the animal and plant kingdoms.

Yet there is one simple fact that is more than perplexing: 95% of cultures share more or less the same creation myth, as Spencer Hale notes in a footnote of his book “Spell of the Unown”, even though Hale’s book revolves more about the couple of cultures that prescribe to the theory that “the Unown heard the wishes of the universe and danced to create reality as we know it”. (Hale; 2009)

The cultures that all share the same creation myth are separated by time and geography but one fact remains: they share the same beginning of the world story. The referred cosmogony _[1]_ is, of course, the legend of Arceus (Carolina; 1999). The joint effort of Dr. Juniper, who’s best-known for her research into the origins of Pokemon, and Professor Alden, a researcher of Hoenn’s ancient ruins, results into the following quote, which is supposed to be the most accurate translation of the Arceus legend:

> In a vortex of complete chaos and nothingness, a single Egg came into being, made of stardust and cosmic energy. This egg hatched the first sentient being, the God Arceus, the first of all Pokemon. Lonely and urged on by unknown conviction, Arceus breathes life into Dialga, Palkia and Giratina. Arceus gifts Dialga with the power over time, Palkia with the power of space, and Giratina with the power of antimatter. However, Giratina, soon driven mad by its power, gave into violence and greedy destruction. For its sins, Giratina was punished by Arceus and banished into the Distortion World, a prison most heinous and without any rules. Afterwards, Dialga and Palkia join forces and succeed in creating the universe. Exhausted, the two retreated into their own dimensions. Once again driven by unknown urges Our Lord created Regigigas (creator of continents and landmasses), Mew (the ‘Allfather’ of all Pokemon, the Pokemon all other Pokemon descend from) and the Lake Trio : Uxie, Mespirit and Azelf, respectively representing the ideals of knowledge, emotion and willpower. Arceus was satisfied with its work and weaved sparsely within the world’s strings. [...] After being betrayed by humanity, Arceus was forced into a deep sleep. Arceus swore vengeance and a renewal of everything, should it ever wake up and we hope our prayers of forgiveness will become our repentance. (Juniper & Alden; 2013)

Why is this so important? Fundamentally, the answer is simple. With such a high grade of synchronicity all over the world, it is unlikely that the Arceus legend is not true. To be even more clear, when so many cultures with no chance of any contact situations agree on one cosmogony, then that cosmogony has to be true.

Consequently, it follows that life was created – and life did not evolve by traditional definition. [2] Yet there are still misguided scientists and faux scientists trying to explain life through that lens. One example is the desperate attempt to fit the various species of Pokemon into an evolutionary tree that categorizes and follows the line of how Pokemon could have developed into each other (Shelomi et al.; 2012). A valid counterargument to the theories proposed by that paper, which was even noted within the paper itself, is the uncertainty of where to place Arceus or artificially created Pokemon such as Mewtwo, Genesect and Porygon [3].

To be fair, the Evolution theory seems to be a valid answer to Samson Oak’s, the cousin of Professor Samuel Oak, conundrum regarding what he calls “the Alolan region variety of Kanto Pokémon” (Oak, 2016) He supposes that immigrants brought certain species of Pokemon such as Geodude, Raichu and Meowth (among others) from Kanto to Alola and that those species evolved to adapt to the tropical climate of Alola.

The counterargument to Oak’s assumptions lies in the fact that Alola is not only inhabited by the so-called “Alolan varieties” but also by entirely newly discovered species. Argued from the standpoint that life is created, would it not be more plausible, then, that these species are species on their own? Indeed it would be more plausible, considering that there is no evidence of these imaginary immigrants. Additionally, some of these species have entirely different types compared to their assumed ancestors. For example, Geodude is a Rock- and Ground-type Pokemon while the Alolan Geodude [4] is a Rock- and Electric-type Pokemon. Any researcher and trainer knows that Ground-types are immune to Electric-types (Oak, 1978), so how would such a metamorphosis even be possible?

What remains is, that in this world of Pokemon we live in, with all its wonders and supernatural influences (for instance, Psychic Pokemon), celestial creation via Arceus has a firmer grip on reality than a slapped-together hypotheses of random biological changes that are supposed to happen over eons but happen in seconds.

**Footnotes:**

[1] A cosmogony refers to the creation of the universe within a void full of nothingness, as coined by the Greek (Kirk, Raven and Schofield; 2003)

[2] “Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations”, as stated by the Wikipedia article on Evolution (accessed on the 30th August 2019)

[3] Porygon’s creation was obsessively documented by the creator of the species, Dr. Akihabara. However, he never compiled his research and findings within a peer reviewed paper. Similarly, the late Dr. Fuji has been credited with the creation of Mewtwo out of the DNA string of the extinct Mew. It is unknown, though, whether this is valid since there is no conclusive evidence as well as hints of criminal involvement by the crime syndicate Team Rocket. Nothing could be proved or disproved.

[4] Samson Oak's theory is so popular that these species did not even receive their own categorization but instead adopted the names of their phenotypically similar Kanto versions.

**_Bibliography_** :

Carolina, Rebecca (1999). _History of World Legends_. SinnohPress.

Hale, Spencer (2009) _. Spell of the Unown_. Nintech.

Juniper, Aurea; Alden, Umezu (2013). _Biology or Magic? The creation of the World._ Bulbagarden.

Kirk, G. S.; Raven, J. E.; Schofield, M. (2003). _The Presocratic philosophers_. Cambridge University Press.

Leeming, David A. (2010). _Creation Myths of the World_ (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. 

Oak, Samson (2016). _Pokémon variety in Alola_. AlolanPress.

Oak, Samuel (1978). _Analyzed Data on Type Compatibility (as compiled by PokéDex Users)(4th ed)_. PalletPublishing.

Shelomi, Matan, et al. “A Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of the Pokémon.” _Animals of Improbable Research_ , vol 18, no. 4, July-August 2012, pp. 15-17. https://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume18/v18i4/Phylogeny-Pokemon.pdf

\- 📀 -

**POKENAVI TRANSCRIPTION**

_**Doll (14.35):**_ First off, preachy.

 _ **Doll (14.37):**_ Second, a few awkward formulations. No typos, though

 _ **Doll (14.38):**_ Third, what the distortion? Are you kidding me?

**_Mace (14.41):_** What? I worked hard on that. And just because you‘re delightfully misguided …

**_Doll (14.45):_** You mean enlightened. Sweet Arceus …

_(Disclaimer: Pokemon is owned by The Pokemon Company, consisting of the companies Nintendo, Creatures and Game Freak and was created by Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori.)_


End file.
